All Forum Posts by: Steven Kopstein

@marvin Wow!  NYC is such an amazing place.  Full of culture, great food, interesting people  - and HUGE hassles trying to get things done or actually reach a living breathing person who will help you get what you need.

I was mentioning this to one of my agents this morning.  We often need to contact Management Companies for information about listings.  We can't move a deal forward sometimes without knowing things like investor ratios, flip tax, % down required, rental policy, pied-a-terre policy etc...

When we call, we usually get something like this - "ABC Management Company, please hold." Said rapidly and not pleasantly. 

Wait 5-10 minutes and hope they pick up - often you just get disconnected.  Call back, repeat.  Check website for emails - email them.  No response.  Try again the next day and hope you get through.  In the meantime, the client is wondering why you can't get the information and may just walk away.

I now ask the seller's to contact the managing agent directly with questions.  Since they already own in the building, they can usually get some kind of response faster than a mere agent.

I closed by telling my agent that the reason why people put up with this is because there are so many people that want to be here, those behind the curtain don't have to care.  If we walk away, there's almost always another buyer waiting just behind us to try their luck and hopefully get a piece of this crazy island.

@J Randall It's actually MORE complicated (again) searching for properties because there are several different sources - none of which are all that reliable - and the market moves quickly here. We have Streeteasy yes, but we also have something called the RLS, REBNY Listing Service, plus OLR, plus the websites of the individual brokerages. Now these sites are supposed to talk to each other, but I can tell you with great certainty that they don't always dance well together.  I can update something on the RLS and Streeteasy doesn't pick up the change so then I've got to email them and follow-up to make sure it's done.  We have a listing in Manhattan Beach right now where the Annual Taxes are showing up as monthly on SE.  Try chasing that down for an hour of your day... No fun zone and far from easy when you add it all up.  Hundreds of times clients have emailed me about listings on SE, then we check RealPlus/REBNY and it's already in contract or accepted offer.  We have grey areas where it takes about 2 full weeks to get from Accepted Offer to In Contract - few agents change the status in the system, so they still show as available, but the agent isn't really showing... Then you've got to email, text, call etc just to find out if they are still showing it.  Usual answer is no, but maybe...  So the buyers have most of the information on SE, but it's just not all that accurate (maybe 80-85% on any given day).  Good enough for a broad overview, but not great for actually trying to book appointments. 

See my post above to learn more about the fun process of setting up a tour to look at places... It involves a min of 4 people and on average about 30-40 communications (text/phone/email) just to set up EACH appointment.  Doing a normal tour lasting about 2 hours in Manhattan will take about 1-2 hours of time to just set it up.

@Jr T. Yes- you got it right - it is Anthony Owens - small world.  Try him - you never know, maybe he'll expand a bit outside Frederick.

Spoke to my sister and got this info:

Anthony Owens Remodeling & Repair

(301) 576-4056

Her name is Eileen and she works with Tony so she'll probably answer the phone as he's usually out with his crew on jobs.  As I said above, I can't personally vouch for his work, but I know he's very involved in community service and very busy, so those are 2 good signs.  Tell her Steven sent ya'.

Not sure if you've read Zillow Talk, but there's a chapter in there about Real Estate Agents and why it makes sense to use one.  I found that surprising, considering the fact that many thought Zillow was going to rep[lace agents.

In summary, he says the reason why people should, do and most likely will continue to use an agent is that selling a home is a high value transaction that most people only do a couple of times in their lives.  So, it's not worth the risk of mucking it up.  The amount one stands to lose by making mistakes is far greater than the 5-6% of the transaction that the agents get.

I've been a broker since 1985 and I remember when we used to fax listings to each other.  This was in Washington, DC.  A few years later, the internet came along and everyone was saying  - this is the end of realtors!  Well, here we are 30 years later, saying the same thing.

I'm not saying it can't or won't happen - I was part and parcel of the end of the Travel Agent as we knew it while working for United Airlines in the 90's - but the Zillow guy has a point - people do many airline transactions at relatively low cost (and low risk) so using a specialist no longer was necessary.

What I have seen is that my role has changed tremendously.  I'm more of an adviser these days.  No longer sending info on listings (thanks to the internet, many clients do their own searches) - but I do pull all the pieces together and tread the treacherous waters of high-stakes negotiations so my clients don;t have to.  I'm also providing perspective to sellers who can never see their place objectively.  It's impossible.  Like thinking your 3 year old is only the 10th smartest kid in pre-school.  It's not going to happen.  They've nursed and burped that baby through sleepless nights.  They cannot be objective.  They don't spend all day very day working the market and can't keep up with trends they way a pro does.

In NYC of course, everything is way more complicated and people haven't got the time to understand the maze of rules that each building has (flip taxes, restrictions on who can own and occupy, specific income and debt guidelines and 300 pages of personal data required even for a starter apartment).

So, agents and brokers are here to help and happy to do get it done for people efficiently and accurately.

I just wanted to share my progress - I've been working hard to scan the various sources for deals in New York Metro and I started analyzing 3 deals/day as Brendan recommended in one of the podcasts.  I started on 11/4 and today reached number 38, which is about 1/3 of the way.  I'm not clear on when I should start making offers - is it after the first 100 properties, or while doing my 3/day.  I've set Jan 2016 as my beginning to make offers time, but I'm wondering if it's necessary to wait.

If anyone else is doing 3/day per the podcast, I'd be curious to hear your progress.  It's quite informative.  I'd say about one in 8 deals I analyze makes sense (in other words, the maximum allowable price given the $50k/project I am seeking is within shooting range of the asking price.)

@Cheryl Schuck Buyer Broker agreements are about as rare as fields of alfalfa here in NYC.  I was kind of surprised when I started asking about them here, since I'd done lots of them in DC.  People looked at me like I was crazy. 

The systems are pretty well-entrenched and nobody wants to change them.

@Joshua Warden Nice welcome post.  I too, love to hear about folks interested in improving the community.  It can enrich us more than the money when we take a broken down home and turn it into something nice that everyone can gain from,

You could put them on the local Craigslist as well.  People looking for properties in a given area frequently check the local Craigslist.  Or, as someone suggested, use a local agent.  If they work in a vacation area, they know how to reach potential clients for that market.